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Mayor blasts media on budget

Dunkirk Mayor Kate Wdowiasz defended herself Tuesday over what she said was “misinformation” reported about city finances and her actions in dealing with them.

Dunkirk Mayor Kate Wdowiasz attacked the media Tuesday for its coverage of her 2025 budget rollout.

The mayor said at a Common Council meeting that “misinformation” was reported about the city’s finances and actions by her administration. “Despite reports to the contrary, I have done everything in my power to control spending by implementing a hiring freeze as well as a no overtime policy across city departments, and informing all department heads they must limit their spending,” she said.

Wdowiasz’s budget proposed a 108% property tax increase.

Wdowiasz went on, “The council is aware of this, but I would also like the general public to know that in early spring I did call the state Comptroller’s Office and asked them to implement a control board. I was told at that time the city would not qualify … due to mainly the size of our community and the fact that we had not exhausted all possible avenues of revenue-generating resources.”

She said it is “completely inaccurate” that the city has been given $16 million from the state. Rather, “we were given deficit financing legislation for the financing of the Office of State Comptroller-certified debts, up to $18.5 million under the Dunkirk Fiscal Recovery Act, which the city will have to repay over the next 15 years.”

Wdowaisz went on to blame “minimal, less than 14%, property tax increases over the last 20 years as well as growing city expenses and contractual wages” for the city’s financial plight. She also mentioned the loss of tax revenue from the NRG plant closure and “spending that was never sufficiently controlled during previous administrations.”

Finally, she said her budget does not include an increase of $2.9 million in spending from last year, “rather it is an actual reflection of the costs of running the city with the services we have reflecting the cost of the line items — an actual balanced budget.”

Dunkirk’s 2024 spending plan totaled more than $26 million. The proposal released last week totals $28.9 million for 2025.

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